Before the meatpacking company best known for dumping pig blood in the Trinity River reopens its doors, state Sen. Royce West first wants wants the community to have its say. That will indefinitely delay Columbia Packing Company's reopening.

But per the deal cut with Dallas city attorneys, the company owned and operated by the Ondrusek family will no longer be able to operate a slaughterhouse. It will instead operate as a smokehouse and meat-packing facility, according to documents filed with the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality. Says Michael Byington, the consultant hired by the Ondruseks to make sure Columbia's complying with local, state and federal environmental rules, the old slaughterhouse facilities have been razed as a result.

"They could not slaughter if they wanted to," he says.

The TCEQ is asking for public comments concerning the reopening. The first round closes today. Comments can be submitted by clicking here. But you'll need to know the permit number, which is: 106009.

Eventually there will be a hearing in Dallas; West says he sent a letter requesting one. The TCEQ has yet to set a date.

"I want to make sure before the state grants a permit that behavior they allegedly displayed in the past doesn't surface again," says West, who will not say how he feels about Columbia's likely return in the coming months.

"I am all for business," he says. "And I want to make sure we have jobs in the community. If indeed the community feels as thought we should continue to support that meatpacking business, I am supportive of it. I am not going to prejudice how the community should look at this issue by saying how I feel. The community should have the right to input."

Byington isn't sure when Columbia will reopen; this hearing is a bit of a roadblock, he says, especially since it hasn't even been set.

"I know as little as you know," he says. "We have a timeline we would have liked to have seen based on permitting conversations with the TCEQ, modeling, etc. But with this hearing, everything depends on that. Until I know when the hearing is I can no more foresee the future than you. I hate to be vague, but I really don't know."